Charlie Wayman

Another good day at the office. The important point to remember is that we are winning on heavy pitches in rain-sodden conditions whereas or slickest football is designed for fast dry pitches. If we can win ugly repeatedly in these conditions then it should be fun when spring comes and we can knock it around a bit. SUID

Yeah! Typical Echo. Why make things up when somebody else has already done it for you?

Never mind the quality feel the width! It'll do for me for now. Well done lads!

A few weeks ago when this idea started about us reaching the play-offs, we were 11 points behind. Now, 6 or 7 games later we are 13 points behind. By any standards that is regression not progression. Forget the play-offs and look forward to maybe a top-ten finish, for which we should be grateful all things considered

Lambert just didn't seem interested yesterday, I wonder if Conolly is beginning to get to him. We saw from Conolly yesterday, how effective a striker should be and in truth Lambert has never been in that class. It seems to me that as Saints up the tempo and skill of their movement Lambert is being left behind. I fear he doesn't have it in hmi to respond in the way Conolly has either. It's not just Lambert that is poor at the moment, somehow Hammond was all at sea again yesterday as well. Why they chose him as Skip and not Murty is beyond me. Lambert, Hammond and Davis need a run in the reserves to sharpen them up... I know, I know who'd replace them?

We are not good enough for the play-offs this year. The limitations of our back four are starkly evident. In truth probably only Murty is good enough. Jaidi's age is beginning to tell, Trotman seems unreliable under pressure and Harding is an enigma somehow contriving to look better than he is, great going forward but defensively awful.

Well, not what you'd call an uneventful match, this was full-blooded end-to-end stuff that enthralled the crowd from beginning to end and would not have disgraced the premier league. It was hard to believe at times that we were watching third division football. Norwich were good, not spectacular but solid, well-organised and skillful and an odds-on bet for at least a play-off place. Saints were at their frustrating best and worst once again, at times magical at others pedestrian and awful. It is strange indeed to watch such an amalgam of sublime movement at one moment followed by sheer bloody incompetence almost immediately afterwards and moments of madness from some of our brighter stars that defy imagination and which seem not to afflict other teams. Who'd be a Saints fan? Who would not have wanted to be there on Saturday. The best match by far at SMS for many a long year. A draw was a fair result. This is our level in this league with this team. The positives to take away? The fast close-linked interplay of Schneiderlen, Lallana and Conolly, the breath-taking arogance of Antonio and the never-say-never, do-or-die, win at all cost approaches of James and Schneiderlen. The penalty, the fluffed shot-stop that led to goals? **** happens, every player has a moment, they'll get over it so will we. Don't expect promotion but please let's get away from the drop zone before Christmas. and... More games like this please!

I am beginning to wonder if Pardew has given up on this lot mentally and is ready to quit himself... Just a hunch but watch his body language on Saturday, I don't like thelook of it lately.

It's what happens when you sign other people's rejects.. Why do you think they couldn't get into their own clubs first teams and were allowed to leave. There's none so blind as those that DON'T WANT to see.

I've not been inside their ground but have driven past and it seems very easy to get to and it looks modern although small. Hartlepool is a bit dead these days but there has been some regeneration of the old docks, a bit like the original Ocean Village development and there is a very nice Italian Bistro type restaurant right on the dockside. If you are staying over, Middlesborough is the place and has some cheap B&B's and small hotels. Not at all sure about a dark, dank Tuesday night up there. We visited as a stop-over en-route to the Great North Run (1 35.30).

So is Gus Poyet the Man?

I missed this one as away on holiday. Oh Dear! It seems certain now that we will be fighting the specter of Relegation all season. On this showing, promotion is doubtless beyond us this time however fanciful our notions and ambitions had become with recent successes. Otherwise had a great holiday, lots of sun, sea and sand AND with FREE room Premiership football pretty much every day although 5 hours behind local time. Didn't fly with Flybe 'though as they don't go far beyond Eastleigh airport. Used Emirates instead... Yes, (sigh) I know... closet Gooner. But, fair do's guys, they can knock it around a bit pretty, can they not?

To say the least this is a very peculiar point of view as midfelders always operate in or around the 18 yard box; "putting the boot in" invariably leads to direct free kicks in front of goal and at just the right distance to get it up and over the wall and down again into the net. This is just what we don't need as we saw against KKD the other day. This has been one of PAUL'S biggest problems and why he is regarded as a clunky tosser. I cannot recommend you to the coaching staff either...

Not him. He was pre-war 30's guy.

Hey man! I was there as well. A real nail-biter. We were standing in the East stand more or less on the half-way line and boy was it a crush but being a kid I got to sit on my dad's shoulders for most of the game. Bet he was cream-crackered at the end but never heard him complain about it - only about the Saints! I recall the big buzz then was that the Director's (Sarjenson?) did not want the club to go up as they could not afford the expense of staying in Division I... !!! Sounds all too familiar but they may have had a valid point as we 'almost' made it for a couple of years running. Remember that unassailable points lead we had one year? There was a bloke walking around the touchline selling cough sweets from a tray with the sales pitch "Cough no more for 1p" - that's OLD money; you would have one hell of a good night out on 1 shilling with the proverbial chips thrown in, wrapped in poisonous print laden newspaper but what the heck it all added to the taste.

I named the team from memory and you know what it's like as a kid you can recite your team almost like poetry - some things are just meant to be - as it rolls off your tongue, and it has stayed with me ever since and I can do the one with Paine, Davies and Sydenham as well and many others! I'm still pretty sure the team I named played together or ethan once and your are right that Ephgrave and Stansbridge were kind interchangeable. I've tried finding the old programmes from that time but I guess they were left at my dad' house many year's ago. I don't have the advantage of a book of records to consult and from which you seem to be quoting but maybe that's not infallible either, it is after all only a book. Nevertheless, I am nowhere near 80 as one post suggested would be the case for anybody who remembers seeing Charlie Wayman. Do the sums, I was a kiddywink then.

Ah! Yes, but who remembers; Stansbridge, Ramsey, Rochford; Smith, Webber, Mallett; Day, Curtis, Wayman, Bates, Wrigglesworth This was the team that narrowly missed getting us into League 1 in 1947/48 and 48/49 and Yes! this was Ramsey as in ALF and Bates as in TED and Charlie Wayman is in ME! ... And listen all you YOUNG GITS we can all play the ageism card. We were Saints long before your dad's were accidentally born so RESPECT guys! In fact your dad's might have been our kids, how will you ever know?

What an amazing thread, not a scrap of evidence to back up one single statement but page after page of worthless speculation. From my vantage point in the Itchen Centre below the 'royal box' I can confirm that the 2L box has gone and both gentlemen attended at least the first two home matches, sitting 5 or 6 rows back in the director's seating area. As they are now ordinary fans like you and me why would anybody particularly notice their presence as opposed to yours or mine? We need to be realistic about their attendance also, how many people are able to attend every single game without fail come hell or high water? Life isn't like that as everyone knows even for dedicated ST holders such as me. Through no fault of my own the Brighton match will be my third 'miss' of the season.

Nice perhaps only because it says what you wanted to hear? See no evil, speak no evil? As it happens they "did not turn up" simply because they did not have big players and we physically hammered them into submission. The first 55 minutes was not one of Saints' prettiest performances. We were totally 'long ball' until the tactical change and look where it got us , 0-1 down until the switch. There were plenty of moans and groans in The Itchen in the first half, I can tell you, because of our one-dimensional hoofing football leading nowhere. After the switch we were a different team so why didn't Pardew start out like that?

Talk of being in the play-offs and Wembley is crap! Anyway who wants to shell out extra dosh on a day out queuing on the North Circular and waste team effort on an insignificant pewter pot. Relax! Saints will get automatic promotion thus making it cheaper and easier for all of you.

Great stuff Block 5. Thanks for the insight. You should be reporting games for the Echo, much more info than we get from Adam Leitch

I am concerned but not by Midlesboro'. West Ham are certain to dispense with Signor Zola in the next week or two as he can't turn it round and the excitement factor of his coming has now waned. He'll go to Chelski as a coach and who will replace him.... ? One, Alan Pardew of course a ****ney lad who will run at the slightest ding of the old Bow Bells. He'll "be flattered" of course to be asked by such a famous old club and their desire for him to return, he will "always have had deep respect and affection for Hammer's fans" and so on and for sure will have "loved his time at Southampton" and "be sad to leave" but "a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do..... Realistically for a guy of his age and experience this is a one day one-way ticket back to the Premiership, not a five-year renewable option which he has at the moment. No Brainer!

It won't be Strachan, you can bet your life he's not looking to live in Hartlepool and only neanderthals would think Middlesborough a grand place to live, where a great night out involves paying for brown sauce on your chips.

This single ill-considered and stupid comment from you has tarnished your reputation so much that it is unlikely that any reasonably intelligent member of this forum will ever take your inputs seriously again or bother to read them. I will not for one.

being the best team in the league doesn't guarantee we'll get promoted after the **** poor start that we made.